Life Changes

When I posted my last write-up about our Alaska cruise, I had forgotten that I had alluded to a "bitter-sweet change" in the week following our return from Oregon. In our last post, I failed to explain that statement and one of our good friends called me on it. Jacque asked, "Dean! What was the "bittersweet" cliffhanger from your last post???"  Here is the entire story.

Prior to leaving for Oregon, Linda and I sat down and had a heart-to-heart dealing with one of our favorite adventures, river running. If you look back at this diary of our adventures, you will find that we have taken many trips on whitewater.  Prior to my creating this blog we ventured on rivers all over Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Idaho. Our weekends were filled with exciting runs down spectacular rivers. Our friend base was built around river running and we met and enjoyed a ton of amazing people. For a long time, it was a huge part of our life.

As time went by our family priorities changed and we discovered new ways to explore the world around us. Our river trips went from every weekend to a couple times a month, then to three times a year to once a summer.  We were getting older with more responsibilities and new interests.  

After our float down the Lower Salmon River in August of 2022, we talked about how our lives have changed and how few river trips we had taken in the past several years. The topic of my age and physical health was a large part of the conversation. We looked back at the past two river trips and evaluated how I had fared on the river and in camp. I admitted that it was getting harder to do all the tasks needed to get Linda and myself safely down the river and comfortable in camp. I had to ask myself one question. If we had an accident and I was thrown out of the boat, could I rescue myself and swim back to our boat and climb into it quickly.  At this point, probably not. With two knee replacements and numerous other factors, it would definitely be a problem.

Linda admitted that she was slowing down a bit which made the adventures more of a challenge. When she returned home last August it took her a little longer to bounce back. Again, Linda was not the concern. I rowed the boat, so we needed to feel good about my abilities to keep us out of trouble and make good runs.

This was one of the hardest conversations we had ever had.  After the past two adventures, we talked at length about how I felt, how long it took for me to recover, and should we try to keep rafting in the future.

Another factor in all this was the fact that our boat, the purple cat, was growing old also.  I purchased her in 1995 which makes her 28 years old.  28 years of rivers!  The boat's record is really amazing. In all those white water descents, our boat has never flipped! I have only been thrown out of Old Purple once. It was on the upper stretch of the Lochsa River. My exit was my fault. I was hole hunting and stood up on the mesh floor to push into the hole. The river hit the floor and launched me 6 feet into the air and over the back of the boat. I shouldn't have been standing at that time.

Linda got tossed once on the Main Salmon River.  We were floating along and I was doing my usual, paying attention to everything except the river. We came upon a smaller rapid called Pine Tree and I was gawking up at the tree and misjudged the run. It took us directly into a huge hole and the boat hit a partially buried rock and stopped, tossing Linda out of her seat. She was able to grab a dry bag and hold on with one hand like a bull rider. She pulled herself back onto the boat. Her grip on the dry bag ripped the handle on the bag, which shows how strong her hold was. I got a little earful once we were on our way again for not paying attention.  That evening we had a great story to tell around the campfire.

The boat is such a stable performer, but she is getting old. When you look at the seams, the threads are breaking down leaving the seams held by the rubber welding alone. This should be good enough, but I worry every time the tubes are in the hot sun where they grow hard if not attended. Accessories that we have purchased or sewn, have deteriorated and needed to be replaced. We could still run rivers in our girl. She would probably last many more years, but we decided it was time to part ways.

Our river stories are endless. We regularly ran the Moyie River, the Clarkfork River's Alberton Gorge, the Lochsa River, the Clearwater River, the St. Joe River, and the Lower Salmon River. We were invited on many rivers trips on rivers calling for permits.  This included rivers such as the Main Salmon River, the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, the Snake River through Hell's Canyon, and even twice on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. 

We ran the Grande Ronde River and the Rogue River in Oregon. The Spokane River, the Yakima River, the Tieton River, and the Wenatchee River were ones in Washington. All are wonderful rivers with scenic runs.

The decision was hard but after we looked at all factors, we made the decision to sell the cat, trailer, and all our gear. Well, not all our gear. We kept everything we need to get on a river if we rented a boat and joined a trip. We just couldn't bring ourselves to get rid of it all.

I advertised the equipment on FaceBook Marketplace and had two folks interested. One guy was a bit goofy and didn't show up to look at the gear, and offered lower than we were willing to take. The other person, Ryan, was a young man from Ellensburg who had cash and would take everything we wanted to give him. He was very nice and during the boat pickup, he also bought my fly-fishing cat for the same price I had paid ten years ago.  We were happy that our boat had found a home with someone who would take care of her and appreciated getting everything at our asking price.

Once we exchanged money and loaded the cat and trailer with old gear, Ryan pulled away. Both Linda and I stood there in silence, tears on our cheeks. We were saying our final goodbyes to a trusted friend. It was so hard to let her go.